Gluten-Free Cakes by Radhika

Beautiful and delicious gluten-free cakes are available in Singapore!

Allergen friendly cakes that taste and look good? Pretty much impossible to find…or so we thought.

Please meet Radhika, 1°GF’s’ resident current go-to cake guru. Not only does she bake gluten-free cakes, but also caters to a wide range of allergies including dairy and eggs.

Journey into baking

Radhika’s journey into the realm of baking started with her fascination with cooking at the age of eleven. She would cook and learn alongside her mother who was an avid chef, baker, and birthday party organizer.

In those days, cookbooks were hard to come by and they relied on the basics of Woman’s Weekly for recipes. A career in baking or the culinary sciences was not a typical route many went down – and Radhika is quick to admit that a career in such a field would have given her parents major heart attacks.

In the end, after successfully trying out different career paths, she came back to her first love; baking.

The birth of the allergen free cake

It was only when she moved to Singapore and established Sinsations by Radhika that she started delving into the realm of allergy friendly baking. She got her first request for a dairy-free cake from a lady with a lactose intolerant child.

She managed to easily substitute oil for butter; but was stumped by the frosting! When asked, the family told her that Planta was their go-to for butter substitute… but she was not satisfied with the final product.

Radhika wanted her allergen free cakes to taste as good as her traditional cakes and would not settle for less. She ended up investing more and more time researching non-dairy options that were tasty and healthy.

In due time, she started experimenting with egg-free and vegan cakes; before finally trying out gluten-free cakes as well. The research has not stopped. She continues to tweak and improve all her baked creations.

She confesses that the lead time for cakes is pretty long for weekend cakes which due to how she tries to make each cake as personalized as possible and the number of previous bookings. The process involves looking into the various allergies that need to be accommodated, making test cakes, designing the theme and decorations, and finally coming up with a satisfactory finished product.

Radhika has worked with 1°GF and well understands the risk of cross contamination and safe gluten-free baking protocol.

Beautiful and delicious

When asked why she does what she does, Radhika says that she “firmly believes that every child deserves to enjoy their birthday cake” and that she wants to make sure that every person with an allergy has something to fall back on and enjoy on their special day.

This artist believes that her mission is to bake for children with allergies, admits that her cakes come at a hefty price. Underlying that, though, is her belief in coming up with something of quality. A portion of the proceeds she makes on the cakes goes towards supporting children in third-world countries; a pay-it-forward movement where one child’s happiness evokes another.

In a day and age where there’s the misconception that allergy friendly baked goods will taste terrible, that others at the party won’t want to eat such goods, or that there are limited options available – Radhika is a breath of fresh air!

About the Author

Although she is actually half American, Nicole considers herself a true blue Singaporean as she has lived there her entire life. When she is not writing for various publications, she can be found thrashing CrossFit WODS (or at least trying to), burning her thighs at barre, or finding some excuse to soak up the sun. In other words, this self confessed diehard Disney fan finds it hard to sit still – unless there’s a rerun of FRIENDS showing!